Downtown Redlands businesses growing, moving

For growing local businesses Pennington Designs and Visiting Angels, small square footage on State Street was no longer sufficient. Both companies have recently relocated in the downtown area as they expand their operations.

Pennington Designs has moved from the professional building across from the Gourmet Pizza Shoppe into a two-story location inside the Cope Building at 19 E. Citrus Ave.

Pennington Designs has been operating from a downtown location since April 2010. The business had been running informally for a year before that.

Owner Richard Pennington described it as "a small side thing that turned into a real company."

The business now has a staff of 10, including four graphic designers.

Pennington founded his business with the idea that it would be run completely on the Internet. He said he never intended to have a physical retail location, but customers kept requesting to see his products in person.

Unable to bring customers to his house, and unwilling to make a Starbucks his home base, Pennington opened up shop on State Street, he said.

Having a physical location helps customers see the range of services Pennington Designs offers, including graphic design, silkscreen printing and even embroidery.

The business' new building will feature a showroom displaying a variety of their finished products. The location change also allows the company to bring printing, its main service, in-house with a machine downstairs.

But even with the opening and expanding of his business office, Pennington has kept his price structure low enough to compete with Internet businesses.

"We're bringing in a lot of people who only shop on the Internet," Pennington said. "Because of our ridiculously inexpensive prices, we're able to bring that business back to the city."

Pennington Designs recently won the contract for the city's 125-year anniversary logo. Pennington's team spent four months designing the logo, and the design was chosen by the city over those of competing businesses.

Pennington said the company has also submitted a bid proposal to the city to become the exclusive reseller of all products bearing the logo. The city invited bids from any business to be submitted at the end of June.

Pennington Designs also designs and prints the banners hung around the city featuring active military service members as part of the Redlands' Hometown Heroes Military Banner Recognition Program.

Just six months ago, Pennington's company designed a logo and business cards for A La Minute ice cream, Pennington's new neighbors on Citrus Avenue.

"We love working with small businesses and trying to help people look as professional as possible," Pennington said. "We're all very much about participating in and being involved with the community. And we're having a blast."

The other business that found itself outgrowing its office space is Visiting Angels. Visiting Angels provides non-medical home care for adult disabled, elderly or ill who want to stay in their homes rather than go to convalescent facilities.

The business has been in the downtown area since 2007, but the company's six staff members had severely outgrown its 400 square feet of office space.

Visiting Angels has moved just a block north from its previous State Street location to Suite 201 at 330 Sixth St.

"We love downtown Redlands, so we wanted to stay close to our original location," said owner and operator Sara Johnson-Hector.

Johnson-Hector, who runs the business alongside her husband Brandon, said the idea for Visiting Angels sprung from a personal experience in her own family history.

When Johnson-Hector's grandmother was struggling through Alzheimer's disease 15 years ago, she made her family promise not to send her to a nursing home. Instead, the five children and eight grandchildren did the best they could to care for her at home, working around the clock to do so.

"That many years ago, I knew there was a need for people in my same situation," Johnson-Hector said. "I started Visiting Angels knowing I wanted to help other people who were in the same situation I was. It's grown, and it's been a blessing."

The business works closely with hospice care from hospitals around the area, so Johnson-Hector said it's "very realistic" for someone to be able to stay at home through the last breath.

Today, Visiting Angels serves more than 100 clients with a staff of eight, in addition to nearly 100 caregivers in the field. Visiting Angels recruits caregivers through local universities, as well as from retired nursing and hospital staff.

"I've always had the idea that I don't want to grow faster than I can provide the proper care," Johnson-Hector said, noting that Visiting Angels strives to match one caregiver per client, except for those requiring 24-hour care.

The business held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday evening celebrating the grand opening of the new location.

Patricia Diaz is a journalism major at Biola University in La Mirada. She is a summer intern at the Redlands Daily Facts and can be reached at pattiology@gmail.com or 909-793-3221.